Dog days.

Yesterday the missus and the bestie and I stopped by the local Humane Society to take a look (we do this fairly often) without any intention to adopt (we all live in apartments and have the max. allowed number of animals). We found a female terrier mix, Flora, who had been a stray. She was very scared and skittish, and apparently had nipped at a few people (there were two signs on her cage that warned of her biting).

We wanted to take her out and play with her, because she seemed really sweet, if a little frightened. The women at the desk actually advised us not to take her out to play with her ("she's not the best dog for that sort of thing" I believe were the exact words one of them used). Basically, they had given up on her. They did (reluctantly) let us take her out, and she warmed up very quickly, and stopped her shaking and started wagging her tail and giving us kisses (didn't try to bite us once). We decided that we wanted her.

Problem: I filled out an application (we had to, to play with her), on which I wrote that we have two cats (we do, and we're only paying rent for one of them--as far as the apartment complex is concerned, Gir does not exist). And according to the Humane Society's Big Book Of Stupid Rules, my apartment complex only allows one animal per apartment (that's wrong--it's actually two, at least it was when we moved in). The lady at the desk said that she would call the complex to check on the policy, and that we could place a hold on her until she got a yes or no.

The worst case scenario is that we won't get the dog and that we have to start paying for Gir. Which, after stressing about it all last night, I'm coming to terms with. But I still want the dog to go to a loving home, which I'm afraid won't happen if they keep scaring potential owners away with bite signs. When we were holding her, several people commented on how cute she was, and generally cooing over her, but at the end of our visit, she was back in her cage with giant orange signs warning people away.

This is Flora.


She is three years old and very sweet. She is good with dogs and cats, but gets nervous around small children. Her adoption fee is $125, which includes shots and spaying. She must be spayed before she's allowed to leave the Humane Society, and is available for adoption on July 28th (that's this coming Tuesday).

If you are not able to take on a dog at this point, please take the time to write the Genesee Humane Society to ask them to take the bite signs down and stop discouraging people from considering her for adoption. No animal should be given up on so easily.

Here is the contact info:
(Snail mail) Genesee Humane Society
PO Box 190138
Burton, MI 48519

(Phone) 810-744-0511

(Email) Contact@GeneseeHumane.org

I should know by Tuesday if we're getting the dog (which is not probable), and I'll let you know what happens.

UPDATE: We were approved! Flora comes home with us tomorrow.

But wait, there's more.

Oh, damn, I almost forgot! I started my job today. Well, at this point yesterday. I think it went okay, but I severely underestimated how large the shirts were going to be and ordered a medium. It goes down to my knees and I need to order new, smaller shirts soon because it's a pain in the ass to tuck in to my pants. (I hate tucking shirts into pants. It just sends an "ew" down my spine.)

It will be nice to have another paycheck. We can definitely use the money, as there is now talk of visiting Laura's parents in New Hampshire (still not sure why NH, they're from Jersey) in August. Unfortunately, it's like a 15 hour drive as per the estimations I did in my head without any actual units of measurement to base it off of, and we definitely can't afford two round-trip plane tickets plus hotel accommodations for three nights. Shit, man.

Pregnancy prevention: You're doing it wrong.

The CDC reported last month (yeah, I know) that while teen sex rates have remained steady in recent years, use of contraception is down--and as such, teen pregnancy is up.

This is why abstinence-only sex education is complete and utter bullshit. Preaching at teenagers to deny a natural part of their human existence and then providing no safety net should they decide to do it anyway, because, you know, of the hormones, causes huge fucking problems. Like not teaching kids how to do it safely. Because if they have sex, they're whores and deserve whatever they get, right?

The fact is, 95% of Americans have sex before marriage, so is it really any wonder that when we push shit on teens like "abstinence until marriage" and "condoms cause cancer" and "the pill kills" we end up with higher pregnancy rates? Not to mention the Bush Administration's war on birth control, including raising costs of the pill and placing restrictions on who can obtain what kind of birth control where and when and 'damn it if you don't want to give it to them you don't have to-conscience clause' nonsense.

It's pretty damn nice to have at least a semi-progressive president in office.

No shit, really?!?!

What bothers me is that the author of this article is too busy demonizing single mothers for not spending enough time with their kids to make the point that single mothers HAVE to work, you know, for their kids. So they can eat and have clothes and a place to live--you know, frivolities like that.

And check out the construction of this sentence:
Single mothers spend less time with children, on average because as a group they are less educated than married mothers -- and more highly educated mothers spend more time with children, the researchers said.

That's kind of like saying people who eat ice cream are more likely to drown. (You know, that whole misrepresenting statistics thing you learned about in college? How the third factor is that it's summer, therefore more people eat ice cream and swim? Good.)
Can we admit that it might be possible that the age at which one has children can contribute to education experience, and that women who have their children younger might ostensibly be forced into the workforce at a younger age to care for said children?

Sheesh.

Whoa, a personal blog!

Gir got some blue shit on the back of his neck as a result of tearing apart my empty Arby's bag yesterday, so today he gets a bath and the gods get a good chuckle out of the entire thing.

I bought some cherry cigarettes today and am not disappointed, but I'm still looking for the cappuccino flavored ones--why does no one carry them? Also I realized that I can't pronounce Djarum so I had to figure it out online when I got home (for the record, it's JA ROOM), and wondered how long I've been saying it incorrectly and sounding like an ass.

I brought Laura some Paliani's for lunch today but we both filled up on breadsticks and salad before we even got to the strombolis. (Stromboli? Spell check suggests trombonists instead, which to me do not sound as tasty, but then I've never tried to eat a trombonist so I couldn't say for sure.)

I start my new job at Subway on Sunday (woo, glamorous!)--I had a dream that I was working drive-thru but no one taught me how to do it so I utterly failed and was consequently fired. Our location does not have a drive-thru so I hope to avoid this.

I forgot batteries at the store again. Damn.

Who gets the last say in the abortion debate?

This has been on my mind, lately, but since the missus is talking about it with her brother via telephone, I figured I'd blog a little.

Here's the thing: I don't believe there are two sides to every argument. Sometimes one side is just right, and the other is just wrong. This is an older post by someone way more educated and better with words than I am.

A middle ground will tear you apart.

It's time!

For a filler post, anyway. I've been pretty busy lately, picking up more hours at work, and so I've had less time to blog.

I hope everyone (in the U.S., anyway) had a fun and safe 4th of July. A couple of friends came over and we got drunk and flew kites (sort of) and lit off some fireworks. A good time was had by all.

[I was going to post an audio file for your listening pleasure, but it ended up not working out. Just imagine you're listening to American Girls by Counting Crows.]